Thermal Energy project

Title

Thermal-energy project.

Problem Scenario

The problem scenario is to heat 2 Thermal-piles with a blowtorch to create electricity.

Broad Question

Is it possible to create electricity using a blowtorch and 2 Thermal-piles.

Specific Question

Is it possible to create 1.59 DC volts.

Hypothesis

My hypothesis is that by heating different Thermal-piles it will be possible to create 1.59 DC volts.

Graph of Hypothesis

Variables

Independent Variable:

Amount of heat in F.

Dependent Variable:

Amount of volts in DC volts

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:

Type of light bulb
Type of Thermal-piles

Vocabulary List That Needs Explanation

Thermal-piles = A piece of metal with copper and Aluminum alloys that when heated can produce odd amounts of DC volts.

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General Plan

The general plan is to create one thermal-pile from negative and positive wire, and 2 Pre-Assembled Thermal-cupels ridged up to light bulb. Then i will heat the wire to create electricity. I can measure the amount of volts with a Multimeter

Potential Problems And Solutions

wire could melt and fuse with the Thermal-cupels.

Safety Or Environmental Concerns

1.Fire/Blowtorch
2.Electricity
3.Shock

Experimental Design

(add the correct headings from the experimental design page before beginning)

What is your experimental unit?

I'm measuring the amount of DC volts from Thermal-piles.

Number Of Trials:

I tested the experiment 10 times.

Number Of Subjects In Each trial:

I used 2 different types of Thermal-piles and Thermal-couples

Number of Observations:

I observed it 10 times.

When data will be collected

The data will be collected in the middle of the experiment.

Where will data be collected?:

On a multimetter and the put in the note book.

Resources and Budget Table

Item	Number needed	Where I will get this	Cost
Thermal-piles	2	hardware store	$60.00
Blowtorch	2	home	$0.00
Light bulb	1	home	$5.00
Thermal-cuppel	1	home	$15.00
Multimeter	1	home	$0.00

Detailed Procedure

First step is to wire the Thermal-piles to the bulb and Multimeter. Then take to blowtorches and place them on blowing flame directly on to the Thermal-piles . After a short wile wile the Thermal-piles should produce 1.59 Milivolts capable of lighting a flashlight light bulb. After witch i will place the Thermal-piles into a cup of water to cool them down.

Diagram

Photo List

Thermal-piles, Thermal-cupel, Amount of electricity being produced, Blow torch/fire on the Thermal-piles, assembling of the device, Multimeter. The device after it is done and when it is in action.

Time Line

Procedure-timeline 2/1
Begin experiment 2/4
Experiment 3/1
Analyse 3/7
Discussion/Background 3/15
Wiki Complete 3/15
Poster complete 3/22
KMS science fair 3/29

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Data Table

Trials	Time sec	Results
1	60	1.402
2	60	1.286
3	30	1.188
4	30	1.177
5	15	0.94
6	15	1.08
7	10	0.722
8	10	0.68
9	5	0.446
10	5	0.401

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Data Analysis

All Raw Data

Trials	Time sec	Results
1	60	1.402
2	60	1.286
3	30	1.188
4	30	1.177
5	15	0.94
6	15	1.08
7	10	0.722
8	10	0.68
9	5	0.446
10	5	0.401

Graph
01

Photos

Results

My results show that when you heat up to Thermal-piles for a given amount of time you can make up to 1.57 DC volts. The results prove that when you heat the Thermal-piles for 60,30,15,10,5 seconds will produce different amounts of DC volts witch will make lights and infrared diodes glow at different brightness and produce more light. I was surprised to find that it worked as well as i thought. The cool thing is that i didn't even think it would work, but after trial and er our it worked.

Conclusion

My conclusion is that when you heat the Thermal-piles with a blow torch and keep a constant amount of flame on the Thermal-piles. It will create 1.57 DC volts that will make the infrared diode glow. Witch would be able to be see be an Eye Clops night vision goggles. The diode will glow brighter and less bright by taking the blow torch and increasing heat and decreasing heat. Which will make the diode glow brighter and dimmer. The point of this experimenter was to see if the Thermal-piles were able to take the amount of heat without breaking. The amount of heat was not enough to melt the Thermal-piles witch would make the the light bulb and the diode glow.

Discussion

The point of this experiment was to test if it was possible to take make 2 Thermal-piles create 1.57 DC volts that is capable of heating a light bulb and or a diode. In order to test this i rigged up a lot of wire and 2 Thermal-piles as you can see here so you can see how it will work. It was able to create enough electricity to make the diode glow. When we got ready to test it we put the diode in a cardboard box. When we heated up the Thermal-piles we cut a hole in the box so that we can see the diode with the night vision goggles. The project was almost done except we had to collect the data. The data was really easy to collect which you can see above. I accept my hypothesis.

Benefit to Community and/or Science

It shows that it would be possible to crate enough electricity to power a small light and infrared diodes. And how Thermal-piles can be used to create additional power sources to help the rapid amount of people and improvement in the world. It can also be put in gas burners for stoves to measure the amount of degrees. The Thermal-piles can make the ability to measure temperature in gas stoves.
Background Research
The background research was studding how the Thermal-piles and Thermal-couples wok. I got most of the info for my project on the internet. one of the websites that i used were.
http://www.globalspec.com/industrial-directory/how_does_a_thermopile_work
References
http://www.globalspec.com/industrial-directory/how_does_a_thermopile_work
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_does_a_thermal_couple_work
http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4657282_a-multimeter-work.html
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071230193310AAjBsee
http://www.physlink.com/education/askexperts/ae657.cfm

Abstract